Jan 2 Day 29: Gadna - Jay Karney and Alicia Vidor

This morning started with a 5:30am wake up to go to a checkup with the doctor for a few of us. This consisted of a woman looking at our hands and deciding that we were all well enough to be on kitchen duty. With the mefakdot (commanders) shouting at us to mush the cottage cheese into the cucumbers faster, we thought it was never going to end. After serving all 200 people at the base, it was time to clean up. Finally, after 5 hours of cleaning it was over. It was now time to board the buses.

After standing for literally 7 hours straight, we were all keen for a long bus drive to the shooting range and were sourly disappointed to find ourselves leaving our comfortable seats 4 minutes after boarding the buses. When we arrived at the shooting range were pleasantly surprised by the sound of the samelet (sergeant) "warmly" welcoming us with her kind words. Just kidding. We lined up outside, in our tzvatim (groups) and waited for our turns to finally do what we’ve all been waiting for. Once we were given all the commands, we began to shoot. Being Moriah students we were all so confident until every single bullet missed the target. Within the click of a finger, all the hours of learning we had put into shooting, was over. With sore shoulders, we then got back on the buses and drove back to the base. Later that day we got a real taste for the army when we all did a “gibush”. The gibush was the really intense running, crawling and arm exercises which anyone could opt out of at any time. Only a few brave people were left at the end.

After the gibush, we were given free time to shower, get changed, eat, and then finally get into bed for another freezing, sleepless night.

Now we'd like to touch on some of the punishments - if your water bottle is not touching your LEFT foot - 7 push ups, if your jacket is not zipped up - 7 push ups, if your heels aren't touching - 7 push ups.